Interior Minister Aryeh Deri has scored a victory – albeit a temporary one – in the saga of the grocery stores and minimarkets of Tel Aviv, when Justice Elyakim Rubinstein (now retired) accepted Deri’s request for the issue to be reviewed again in the Supreme Court. This also means that a larger panel of justices will participate in the discussion.

Three months ago, three judges – Chief Justice Miriam Naor; her soon-to-be-replacement, Justice Esther Chayut; and a third woman, who is slated to replace Chayut in a few years, Justice Barak-Erez – ruled that it is permissible for stores to operate in Tel Aviv on Shabbos, mainly in a few designated complexes. A union formed by the merchants of Tel Aviv asked for the court to review the issue again, and the municipality opposed their request. Aryeh Deri, the Minister of the Interior, who is responsible for approving or rejecting the municipality’s decision to allow businesses to open, also asked for the court to hear the case again.

Elyakim Rubinstein stressed the fact that this case is likely to have an impact on other cities, and that it might set a precedent for the entire country. He added that this is a very sensitive subject, and that the law allows the Supreme Court to reexamine a case when it is on a subject of great importance. In his opinion, Rubinstein asserted, Shabbos is an important enough issue to warrant a second review of the case. “Whatever the outcome may be,” he added, “Shabbos, whose status of importance in the realm of Judaism need not be explained, is certainly important enough for this subject to be discussed and elucidated with all of the possible positions articulated before the court, certainly in light of the far-reaching implications.”